Stats

WARNING: badly written melodrama ahead. Skip to the end if you don't want to read it.

***

Sometimes you just get unlucky

"Hyper footprint! Multiple hyperfootprints, two light minutes out!"

Captain (JG) Yuki Nagato was out of her chair before the ATO had even finished her report. A few quick strides took her to the Lieutenant's station.

"Talk to me Lin."

"We've got multiple unidentified impeller signatures bearing one-eight-seven zero-zero-niner closing at 430G. Skip, they carried a lot of velocity over the alpha wall, I couldn't see friendlies doing that, and the accel's about right for Peep DNs."

"Or battlecruisers with a heavy pod load," Yuki finished for her, "chances we could evade them?"

"Not good Skipper, we could do it on our own, but with the convoy..."

Yuki looked up at the bridge holo-tank, at the seventeen green light codes representing the freighters of the fleet train in her care. Left to their own devices her "squadron" could outrun whoever was behind them with ease, but the merchies could barely manage 200G, even if they red-lined their compensators...

Well that cut it. "Alright, sound battlestations. Comms, I need a general signal, all units."

"Hot mic Skipper."

Yuki leaned into the pickup on the Tactical Officer's station, "All units, this is the convoy commander. As you've probably already seen we've got hostile warships closing from astern. We're probably not their intended target, but we're directly between them and the primary so we probably don't get a choice in the matter.

"The convoy is to scatter and proceed on least time courses for the hyperlimit. All convoy escorts are to form on Athena and turn to engage the enemy. We'll buy what time we can. Nagato Clear."

"Skip," the quiet voice came from the ATO's station, "one of the out-system platforms got a good look up one of the Peep's kilt's. They're BCs, CIC thinks Warlord class."

"Which means they're towing pods. Well, at least we should be able to force them to flush them, maybe give the system picket a fighting chance."

***END MELODRAMA

I'm no substitute for David Weber, but there's a little look at how battles in the Honorverse work.

It's always amused me greatly that Yuki's beret in the "Day of Saggitarius" episode of SHnY was white. In the Honor books the only people allowed to wear white berets in the Royal Manticoran Navy are those the Queen has seen fit to command one of her warships. Been meaning to draw some Harrington fanart for awhile and the oppertunity was too good to pass up.

This is probably the most ludicrously over-researched/over thought pic in this gallery. Props have to go to for doing a lot of the research-monkeying and putting up with me wanting to have long discussions about a fictional universe. There's generally good reason as to why everything in this pic is the way it is. Won't bore you with explinations, but I do want to mention the ships. The warships in Yuki's "squadron" make this a bit AU. They're all ships mentioned as being built for the RMN, but most either saw action after or were destroyed before this pic took place (late first war). The Light Cruiser (CL) HMS Athena was ambushed in the opening of the war by four battlecruisers (BC) and only survived through the good fortune that a friendly dreadnaught (DN) was close by at the time. A HMS Athena is also mentioned as being present at the Second Battle of Marsh, though whether she's the same hull is unknown. The Apollo class ships would probably have been scrapped by that stage. Reading down the list on Lt. (JG) Lin's console (which isn't really visible at this res):

HMS Amaterasu was another Apollo class CL assigned to the screen of Home Fleet. She would have been destroyed at the Battle of Manticore. The destroyer (DD) HMS Hawkwing was destoyed prior to this at the Battle of Selker Rift. Finally the other destroyer HMS Aria lived through the first war but was reduced to a drifting hulk at the Battle of Monica during the annexation effort in the Talbot Cluster.

Ok, I've ranted enough now.

The Honorverse and everything in it is (c) David Weber and BAENYuki Nagato is (c) Nagaru Tanigawa and KyoAni

Not technically my characters. The girl in the captain's beret's from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"... the pic was originally a play on a uniform she got during one episode of the anime, which included a white beret [link] being the Honorverse nerd I am it didn't take long for something to go "click" in the back of my head

Hmm, I'll add having a stab at the Havenite uniforms to my list... I remember a fairly significant amount of research went into this pic (in terms of getting the uniforms correct and bridge layout resonably believable). The friend I got to help out with that doesn't have a lot to do with his time right now (I think) so...

Well, yeah... hence the couple of people in white with the green telltails. However they can't exactly leave the bridge and particularly Tactical unmanned. Moreover I doubt Yuki's willing to leave a JG, no matter how talented, in charge right now. Once the Tactical Officer arrives Lin will be able to go get changed and I imagine Yuki's steward will bring her's for her.

There's so little HH fanart/fanfiction out there that every little bit you find is worth reading at least once. As for the art here... Well, I fave'd it within eight seconds of opening the page. So there.

As for the short drama in the comments section? "Badly written", my keister.

As for the captain, I hope they've got something much heavier than her squadron is on the way, or at least the primary has some system-defense pods around. Otherwise making the Peeps flush their pods isn't gonna do a whole lot of good... Unless said Peeps make a terminally stupid mistake (plausible, considering the timeline I read here - during or just before the PRH gets hijacked by Pierre and Saint-Just), or convince the BC's commander that there's a whole lot more than two CLs and two DDs coming their way (also plausible given the disparity between Peep and Manticoran EW quality).

As for Yuki; her escort squadron's going to get chewed up one way or the other. I'd assume the system has defensive pods laid, but whether they're in the right places to help her is quesitonable since she's coming in on a vector you'd expect friendlies to come down (and I guess the Peeps put that into their planning... they did afterall have some competent officers). At the moment her primary concern would be to get her convoy safely out of the system. To do that she's going to need to keep their attention on her. I guess concievably the Peep commander could detatch some of his screen to chase down the freighters, but Yuki's probably counting on them having bigger fish to fry than one badly placed convoy whose luck's run out, so assumeably the screen will stay where it is.

Her secondary concern would be the defence of the system itself. She'd have some idea of what the RMN has there and has probably decided that, if she can get the Peep commander to flush his pods, and hence deny him that first ultra-heavy broadside against the RMN defenders, then the picket will be able to mount a credible defense. My guess would be that the system picket (considering that this is a relatively unimportant system) would be made up of a couple of BC divisions with a light screen. Given the disparity of technology/training in general between the RMN and PN at that time (and that the RMN ships probably WOULD be towing armament) then that should make for relatively even odds... if she can get rid of the Peep pods. If I was in Yuki's boots I'd be aimimg to get above or below the Peep formation and try to lay contact nukes down on the pods for proximity soft kills. Even with CL armament she should have a minimal range advantage, plus the Peeps' wedges would be in the way of their own defensive fire. Either Yuki would be able to knock out some of the towed armament... or force the Peep commander to fire his pods early with bad targeting solutions and minimal terminal guidance time on their drives. Assuming she survived that, then She'd probably keep heading out-system, come around and start picking at their screen from long range. There's not much point in her trying to take the BCs head on, but she could at least give the Peep commander another problem to worry about.

Valid points all - and honestly, slinging nukes at the pods hadn't occured to me. Still, even if the Peep BCs don't fire their missile pods at Athena and her consorts, they've still got quite a bit of missiles they can throw at them. Peep ships at the time, as I recall, are very missile-heavy. If the Peeps close range on her while she's trying to blow away their pods and just have their screen engage them, that's still a lot of birds flying at them to sucker or shoot down. And if the Warlords open up on them with broadside missiles along with their screen... Considering that they'd probably be able to see that they'd cross into missile range I'd definitely want to reply with something - especially the quantity with which they can reply. Qualitative advantage or not, that's still a lot of tonnage coming, and they can take a lot more punishment than Yuki's ships can.

If the Peeps send their screen ahead as Athena and company approaches, it gets even more problematic, since they would be able to engage Yuki's ships with a lot more before they got into missile range of the BC's pods, and still be able to get back into formation with the BCs by the time they move to engage the rest of the RMN's defenses.

Now you will have to excuse me while I hate myself for taking the Peep's side.

Sadly I've not played S.I.T.S... what I do have though is a very boring job that gives me far too much time to think about this stuff

No harm in taking the Peep side, they do afterall have a few big advantages right now: weight of fire, numbers and the fact that they can keep building delta V. where as Yuki's ships will have to slow down to engage.

Honestly if the Peep commander decided to detach his screen to pursue Yuki's ships she'd probably be best off breaking off the engagement, and trying to protect a freighter or two as any difference she could make would be minimal in the big scheme of things. A light cruiser or two out of the Peep screen wouldn't be worth it. Oh, and yes, Peeps ships of the period were missile heavy (at least the light units were)... infact I belive Thomas Theisman's Destroyer in The Honor of the Queen actually mounted one MORE missile tube per broadside than Alice Truman's Apollo. So Yuki's probably either going to have to close to energy range to get in any decent hits (not likely) or she may want to try and hold them at extreme range where her range advantage and better EW/CMs/Point Defence can make the biggest difference.

So, I guess we need to ask: what does she know about the Peep commander? Obiously the dude's got balls taking his entire force in through a crash translation, and if he's making the effort to make a fast transaltion he's also probably shaved it pretty close to the Hyperlimit as well. Whether he's imaginative though, well who knows... though again a crash translation and maximum accleration in-system doesn't exactly speak of a devious mind. So if Yuki tries sneaky shit like you mentioned before then he may miss it.

Which raises the next question: what IS the effective range of Peep sensors anyway? I can't remember but from memory they'd be pretty hard pushed to see her ships and... oooh, "Pearls of Weber" has been updated. Anyway, if she is still resonably outside their sensor envelope then I guess there's other options. One that might be worth trying is taking a similar "up and over" course, but shutting down wedges resonably quickly and doing a hole-in-space impression. She'd have to put some of that drive time into braking but yeah. Then once the Peep squadron has passed again targeting their pods. That would at least give her the chance to get through the better part of their missile envelope un-engaged. It'd be a risky manuver (almost Battle of Hades risky) but hey... horses for courses.

Issues with the plan that I can see:1) she's no-longer distracting the Peeps from her freighters. But again, if they pursue those then she's just going to have to do the best she can.2) Even if she's outside the Peep's sensor range she's not going to have a large window to put this plan into action. A half competent commander would assume that the RMN does have out-system platforms so if the convoy doesn't do something sharpish then it's likely he'd smell a rat. Which raises point...3) How does Yuki convince the Peep commander that there's still a convoy escort around? An un-escorted convoy would likely send up an even bigger flag in his mind than a convoy not doing anything when it should be. I doubt she'd have enough time to transfer sufficient EW drones over to the frieghters for them make it look like the escort was running with a couple of them when the flee... then keep cycling drones to maintain the diversion. Haven't worked out a solution for that one yet.4) If the Peeps do see her with her wedge down then she's even more fucked then she was to begin with. The better Manty EW should help, as would passing "over" the Peep formation and hence them getting their own wedges in the way of their sensors (yeah, I know there's no "up" or "down" in space... but the human brain seems to like to think there is, so it's probably a resonable assumption that most ships will be oriented with their wedges parralell to the system elliptic).

However, if Yuki can pull it off she will get a good shot at the Peep's pods, avoids most of their missile envelope and has far less distance to move to get outside their range again. If she gets out in resonably one piece then she has the option of either hightailing it out with the freighters, picketing the system or mooching around the edges of the Peep screen and just giving them something else to think about.

"Badly written." You do realize how silly that comment is now, don't you?

Honestly I've got nothing more. It's a helluva position she's in, and there's surely no "good" plan to go by in this case... But you know what? I think II'm gonna pull out SITS myself and see how it'd work. Admittedly I don't have any Warlord-class battlecruisers, though - I"ll have to use Sultans.

Athena is obvously an Apollo-class, but what about the rest of the escort?

The rest of Yuki's squadron: HMS Amaterasu was another Apollo-class CL. HMS Hawkwing, there's some debate over what destroyer class Hawkwing is, though the general concensus seems to be that she was the lead ship of her class. Suffice to say that she was Honor's first hyper-capable command and was in her middle age then. Lastly HMS Aria is a Chanson class destroyer, same as Alistair's Troubadour at Yeltsin.

Hmm, I guess the situation I had in mind when I drew the pic was something like: Yuki's convoy headed in-system about 2 LM in from the hyper limit. The Peeps obviously make their alpha translation behind her: 1 full BatCruRon comprised of Warlord-class BCs with the heavy pod load in tow and screen. I hadn't thought too hard about the system picket as they're too far away to reach Yuki before the Peeps would pull her into their missile envelope if the convoy runs. Considering the relative un-importance of the system though probably one under-strength BatCruRon with a CruRon as screen, probably a few destroyers in the mix too. Pods available for the BCs... though a savvy commander might distribute those a bit more widely if he wanted the task group to be more nimble. Guess they'd be in orbit around whatever the major inhabited planet is, hot nodes. There might be a CruDiv or two detached from said screen to cover any out-system infastructure, but I wouldn't count on it. Same goes for system defence pods. If they don't have enough sensor platforms to fully cover the system then I don't think they'd have that many pods at their disposal. Add to that that Yuki's ships are coming down what would probably be deemed a direction to expect friendly ships to approach from...

I love the Honorverse: so much jargon, so much room for technical, tactical and strategic debate

I'm going to admit that most of the technobabble was lost on me, although I admire it immensely, for it sets the scene and pulls me into the artwork itself. Nice work, mate. Colours and ambient lighting within the room are good for the job, although some of the details feel as if they cheat the precision of what I'd have expected on the panels at least. Still the almost haze like style you've got going here makes it all come together nicely regardless.

Haha, yeah... the Honorverse does tend to have it's own rather unique brand of technobabble... but for interest sake... and since I'm trying to avoid actual work right now: Wraith's quick and dirty guide to everything I just said

Hyperfootprint - sorta self explanatory, energy bled off during translation through one band of hyperspace into another, or into normal space (n-space).

Captain (JG) - Captain, Junior Grade.

ATO - Assistant Tactical Officer

Impeller Signature - Emissions given off by the intense gravity created by honorverse propulsion systems.

Alpha Wall - "Alpha" being the "lowest" band of hyperspace and "alpha translation" being crossing the first hyperwall between it and normal space. Upwards translation can only be carries out below 0.3C, otherwise dimensional sheer does nasty shit to the ship (of the terminal variety). Downwards translations however can be carried out at whatever velocity you like... however the more velocity you carry over the wall the more nausiating the loss in apparent velocity is. Generally "crash translations" are avoided unless there's compelling reason to be in a hurry... like wanting to get in-system and attack something.

- DN: classification for "Dreadnought" class ships.

- "heavy pod load". Yuki's reffereing to parasite missile pods towed behind a warship. These are single shot units, each probably throwing between 6 and 14 missiles. Pods (in this instance) are an all or nothing weapon allowing the host ship to throw a much heavier initial broadside. They are however very venerable to proximity soft kills, hence why Yuki later states that she should be able to force the Peeps to "flush" the pods, basically forcing them to empty them at her rather than on the actual system defenders. Since, to carry any resonabe amount of pods they have to be towed outside a ship's wedge, they slow it down (and do nasty shit to its compensators). More pods = less accelleration. However, smaller ships have more efficient compensators and can accelerate faster, so a BC (battlecruiser) slowed down by pods could still probaby match acceleration with a DN.

- Fleet train: fleet resupply convoy. Manticore used to just have small groups of large frieghters to do this. However when war with Haven broke out and the fleet was stretched they started using smaller frieghters in larger numbers allowing them to a) move faster and b) concentrate their escorts.

- "red lined compensators"... compensators are also an all or nothing thing. They're either on or off, push them too hard and they overstretch their inertial sumps, fail and turn everyone in the ship into a bloody goo... even at the resonably low accelerations of the merchies. Should be pointed out that that sump is sort of flexible (though you wouldn't want to count on it) which is how Honor is able to push their ship to 150% max accel in "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington".

- CIC - Combat Information Centre. Sensors pull in a lot of data, most of it not relevant to combat. It's up to CIC to work out what the bridge needs to see and what it doesn't.

- "least time course" - because the Honorverse uses vector-based movement they can't just turn around and run for the hyperlimit. Instead they'll have to find vectors that will curve them around onto a good course. If they're smart the merchies will head above or below the system ecliptic making it less enticing for enemy warships to persue.

- Out system platforms - Most systems are ringed by networks of sensor platforms to detect incoming warships. In a system like this one however (occupied during the start of the war and at the moment probably not very important) they'd be a bit thinner on the ground then the system commander would probably like. Lt. Lin got lucky here... for a given value of lucky.

- System picket. As I just said, I was writing on the assumption that this isn't really an important bit of stellar real-estate. Hence the RMN wouldn't have put a lot there, maybe a BC division or two with a light screen.

Ahhh, sadly all the authentic research and references are a bit lost on me... since I am unfamiliar with the series you are referencing (but my interest has been peeked by your little melodrama )

That being said, the quality of the image itself is NOT lost on me! I love all the glowing detailed screens and the dynamic view angle is quite cool as well. You do a good job of walking the line of referencing the feel of a submarine/ship bridge, but making it look futuristic enough that its seems appropriate for a space-war-ship. Awesome work Wes!!

If you like space opera, then the books are well worth picking up. I think the first one "On Basalisk Station" is available free online through BAEN actually.

Cheers mate. I had to stamp on myself a few times during the bridge design process to avoid any un-needed design flourishes The naval architects of the honorverse seem to have a very practical approach to design. Well at least in the Manticoran/Grason, Havenite and Andermani seem to. The Solarian League's latest round of refits were apparently designed to "make the bridge look cooler on recruitment videos"

I can't remember the details, but it was either in one of the books or possibly on "Pearls of Weber" it was noted that, while Manticore and Haven were trying to kill each other and madly developing new technology... the Sollies were trying to make their ships prettier to get more people to join the Navy. I guess it's a bit like how governments are currently trying to make the military look more attractive to increase recruitment.